Facing Another Measuring Stick, Knicks Come Out on the Short End Against the Celtics

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Isaiah Thomas of the Celtics driving against Courtney Lee of the Knicks during the second half at Madison Square Garden. Thomas finished with 27 points.CreditAndy Marlin/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

By Mike Vorkunov

Dec. 25, 2016

With 1 minute 6 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of their Christmas Day matinee, the Knicks and the Celtics were back where they had started, tied again after nearly 47 minutes of a game that tipped off shortly after noon and, perhaps because of the early start, at times seemed a little drowsy.

And yet here was Madison Square Garden suddenly thundering and frothing, the Knicks having caught up when the game had seemed pretty much over. But two possessions followed, one by each team, that put Boston back in front for good, quieted the Garden and demonstrated the ongoing gap between these two rivals — one growing into a conference contender and the other on the upswing but still trying to figure out how to beat teams that are not N.B.A. weaklings.

What the two possessions also showed is that while the Knicks have star power, the Celtics seem to have a better grasp of on-court patience and precision. In that final minute of the game, it made all the difference.

The first of the two crucial possessions came with the score tied at 112-112 and Boston with the ball. The Celtics whipped the ball around and nearly ran the Knicks’ defense ragged until Marcus Smart, with the sixth pass of the possession, hit an open 3-pointer to put the Celtics ahead.

When the Knicks came down the court, there was little of the cohesiveness that Boston had just displayed. Instead, the Knicks’ possession ended clumsily, with Carmelo Anthony dribbling along the sideline and looking trapped until Boston’s Avery Bradley dislodged the ball and sent it rolling to his teammate Jae Crowder under the basket with 18 seconds left.

Crowder grabbed the ball, was fouled and hit two free throws, and soon enough the game ended in a 119-114 victory for the Celtics.

The result left with the Knicks with a 16-14 record, which is not bad given the miseries of recent seasons. Still, they knew they had come up short in a game that served as another measuring stick of how much progress they are actually making in Phil Jackson’s third season as the team president.

The answer would seem to be some, but not enough. The Knicks are just 3-10 this year against teams with records of .500 or better and will have to improve in that regard for anyone to take them seriously.

“That’s the jump we’ve got to make,” the Knicks’ Courtney Lee said afterward.

What particularly seemed to hurt the Knicks on Sunday was a lack of ball movement. They were credited with just 11 assists on their 41 field goals, fewer than half of the 25 assists that the Celtics compiled in sending 45 shots through the net. And the Celtics, led by their undersized, hard-to-defend point guard, Isaiah Thomas, seemed to have the Knicks’ defense scrambling for much of the afternoon, a difficult situation for any team, let alone one with the sixth-worst ranking in the league.

Often enough, the Knicks have found ways to win this season with high-scoring efforts by Anthony, or Kristaps Porzingis, or even Derrick Rose. But they did not have enough answers on Sunday, and Anthony, in particular, had an uneven game, leading the team with 29 points in 39 minutes but missing 15 of 24 shots and making that costly turnover in the final minute.

The Knicks maintained after the game that their offense against the Celtics had not been too isolation-heavy, even though their coach, Jeff Hornacek, seemed to differ, saying the ball movement had not been good.

“I think that’s just the type of basketball we play,” said Porzingis, who scored 22 points and had 12 rebounds. “We’re not the team that gives the most assists. A lot of it is ‘iso’ for guys and guys making one-on-one plays for themselves and for others. I’m not really worried about that too much. Obviously, there are situations where we can make that extra pass.”

He added, “But that wasn’t why we lost.”

Perhaps not, and yet it was noteworthy that it was one of the Knicks’ best plays of the day — an assertive bounce pass from Joakim Noah to a cutting Anthony — that allowed the Knicks to tie the score with a minute to go.

But then came the 3-pointer by Smart that was followed by a play in which Anthony, without a clear opening to shoot, might have chosen to pass the ball but did not, and instead lost it.

“This is a team that executes very well,” Noah said afterward in praise of the Celtics, who, with an 18-13 record, are now a game and a half ahead of the Knicks in the Atlantic Division. “And we have to look at that team and say, ‘What can we do better as a team?’ I think we will.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D2 of the New York edition with the headline: Facing Another Measuring Stick, the Knicks Come Out on the Short End. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe